


Alone

by msgordo (kipplemine)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Angst and Humor, Complete, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Team, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-13
Updated: 2013-01-13
Packaged: 2017-11-25 09:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/637392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kipplemine/pseuds/msgordo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Re-post of a fic to Wraithbait. Coda to 'Critical Mass'. The team take care of Teyla.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alone

She had been alone for just a few minutes when the first of them appeared. Emotionally drained from losing Charin and performing the ring ceremony, all Teyla wanted was a long hot shower and a few hours respite from being a figurehead for her people and she almost didn’t answer the knock at her door. She stood in her ceremonial gown, head cocked as the knock came again, finally sighing in defeat and forcing her face into its usual calm expression as she moved to open the door.

“Colonel Sheppard?” Teyla frowned in confusion at her team leader, eyes betraying her concern at his surprising presence at her door. “Is there a problem?” Her eyes darted past him to the corridor outside, scanning warily for any sign of danger. “Has something else happened?”

“Relax, Teyla.” In typical Sheppard fashion, John waved a lazy hand and smiled down warmly. “We’re a-okay on the not-being-invaded-by-aliens front.” His smile dimmed a little and he tilted his head as he regarded her. “I heard you’ve had a pretty rough day yourself. I thought I’d check in and see how you were doing.”

Well aware that the tears she had shed earlier were threatening to make reappearance, Teyla swallowed hard and bowed her head in gratitude. “Your concern is appreciated, Colonel, but as you can see, I am fine.” She raised her head and looked him in the eye again, smile firmly in place. “In fact I was just about to retire for the evening, so if there is nothing further?”

John’s affable smile grew. “It’s pretty early. You don’t want to go to bed yet. Mind if I come in?” Without waiting for an answer he slipped past her and into her room. “Hey, you fixed this place up pretty nice.” He fingered a throw pillow on her bed. “This is good work.”

“Colonel.” Thoroughly bewildered at this unheard of invasion of her privacy, Teyla stood by her still open door and stared at her CO. “John, really I….”

“Coming through, coming through!” Rodney McKay’s impatient voice sounded behind her, and Teyla turned to see the man himself and Ronon Dex striding down the corridor juggling various brightly coloured packets and bags and one laptop. “Teyla, good to see you. Could really have done with your help earlier, I ended up having to work with that GI Jane bimbette that Carson’s still sniffing around.” Rodney swept past with his nose in the air and a disgusted sneer on his face. “Yet another classic example of a nice pair of legs and good hair triumphing over actual intelligence and aptitude in today’s modern military. Oh there you are, Colonel; we thought we’d lost you.”

John scowled. “No such luck.”

Ronon nodded at Teyla and then squinted dubiously at John. “His legs aren’t that good.”

Eyes shining with mischief, Rodney’s mouth twisted and he dumped the stuff he held in his arms carelessly on Teyla’s previously immaculate bed. “Did I even mention the Colonel? No, I did not.” He smirked at John’s annoyed face. “But you see how even the trained gorilla you adopted automatically thought of you?”

“Rodney.” John’s nostrils flared in irritation. “Shut up.”

“Colonel, I really…”

Rodney turned at the sound of Teyla’s voice and winced as he got his first good look at her. “Oh my God, what are you _wearing_? Did you lose a bet?” He swept his eyes up and down her body in disbelief. “Turquoise is definitely _not_ your colour.” His eyebrows shot up as another thought occurred. “Did someone steal the rest of your clothes?” He snapped his fingers imperiously at Ronon. “Hey, lunkhead, get your nose out of the food and go beat up some marines until they give you back Teyla’s clothes. Come on, come on, we haven’t got all night. She’ll lose all credibility as Xena, Warrior Princess if anyone sees her dressed like that.”

Ronon bared orange coloured teeth at Rodney and dug back into the family sized bag of Cheetos he’d ripped open. “I like it. It looks nice.”

“Doctor McKay,” Teyla’s voice was as tight as her expression, “I am wearing the traditional mourning garb of my people, and I….”

“Yes, well, I’d be in mourning too if I had to wear that.” Rodney steamrollered over Teyla’s reply and then crossed the room to take her shoulders and point her in the direction of the bathroom. “Well, I’m assuming that you do still have your other clothes, so I suggest you run along and get changed into your usual gear and then hustle back so we might actually stand a chance of inhaling more than just the crumbs left after our resident garbage machine decimates our comfort food.” He glared pointedly at Ronon, now enthusiastically investigating the contents of a packet of Oreos. “By my calculations you have just under two minutes.”

~*~*~*

Twenty minutes later, Teyla was somewhat surprised to find herself sitting cross-legged with the rest of her team on a pile of cushions in her room in her more usual pants and top, watching a DVD about a girl named Buttercup on Rodney’s laptop and fending off Ronon as he tried to swap her strangely named Phish Food ice-cream for his own much less appealing strawberries and cream flavour.

“You have chocolate pieces in yours.” Ronon tried again to snatch the container from her hand. “And some kind of white sauce. I want that one.”

Teyla pursed her mouth primly and smacked her spoon sharply over his knuckles. “Doctor McKay said that he brought this especially for me. It would be rude to refuse his gift.” She lashed out with her spoon again. “I do not wish to offend him.”

Ronon sucked his stinging knuckles and glowered at his own ice cream. “This stuff is too bland. I want something else.” He turned his glower on Rodney. “Give me yours.”

John grinned as Rodney scrambled away from Ronon’s lunge for his cookies ‘n’ cream, and sing-songed, “I want doesn’t get. Play nice, boys.”

“Get away from me, you poor excuse for a barbarian!” Rodney kicked out desperately as he tried to remain upright and protect his ice-cream at the same time. “If you even think about touching… _Colonel_!”

John winced at the strident yell as Rodney was forcibly separated from his ice cream and reluctantly pulled rank. “Ronon, give him back his damn ice cream.” He held out his own chocolate and brownies carton enticingly. “Here you can have… _Hey_!” He pulled his hand back as Ronon snatched the carton away with a grunt of triumph, simultaneously carelessly tossing Rodney his own ice cream back. “You nearly took my damn fingers off.”

Ronon dug into the melting chocolate, ignoring his CO’s indignant protest. “This is better, I like it.”

John settled back against his portion of the cushions with an annoyed scowl and swiped up a packet of Twinkies from the floor. “The things I do for my team.” He waited until Rodney and Ronon were distracted by the film and on their way to a spectacular sugar high, before leaning into Teyla and saying in a low voice, “So, you really okay?”

Teyla blinked, startled out of her contemplation of the little chocolate fish in her carton. “I have already told you, Colonel, I am fine.” She smiled warmly. “Thank you.”

“Yeah.” John eyed her doubtfully. “Only I’m thinking that you’re not. You looked pretty upset when we arrived.”

“I was merely…surprised.” Teyla lowered her eyes; all too aware of how deceptively observant John could be when he put his mind to it. “And slightly disconcerted by Doctor McKay’s casual attitude towards my people’s customs.” Her face flickered in a wintery smile. “Although after all this time his sharp candour should not offend me.”

“Huh.” John scratched at the barely noticeable scar on his neck from where he had been bitten by the wraith bug and glanced at Rodney, now engaged with hooting encouragement at the screen where an impressive swordfight was taking place. “You know this snacks and movie night was Rodney’s idea, right? He was pretty pissed with Carson when he found out what happened to you today. Kinda thought that once we’d taken care off the whole exploding city thing, someone should have found one of us and told us what was happening with you. In case you needed us.”

Teyla blinked again. “You all had much greater concerns. I would never dream of troubling you with my people’s problems unless it impacted on the safety and well being of us all.”

John shook his head fondly, wearing what Teyla had always privately thought of as his ‘Rodney, you’re _such_ an idiot’ smile. She’d certainly never thought to have it directed at her. “I’m not talking about your people, Teyla, I’m talking about you. Times like these, you need your team around you, you know?”

Teyla smiled stiffly and looked away from those all seeing eyes. “I had my people with me.”

John sighed. “But not your team.” He patted her knee gently. “Still, we’re here now. Better late than never.”

Teyla lifted startled eyes to his face, alarmed to feel her throat thicken at the warm look of understanding in John’s eyes. “I…she was the last of those I consider my family.” She blinked furiously as her vision began to blur. “I should be grateful that she lived a full and long life.”

“Yeah.” John hesitated for a moment, looking uncomfortable, before deftly removed the carton of melting ice cream from Teyla’s slackening grip and passed it off to Ronon. “Doesn’t mean you don’t get to miss her though.”

Teyla’s face twisted in a mix of shame and grief as the tears began to spill. “I should not begrudge her a peaceful and painless death.” She tried to stifle a sob. “I should be strong for my people.”

John hesitated again and then wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tugged her rigid body into his side, accepting the tissues that Rodney held out with a sympathetic grimace and smiling at Ronon as he reached out and wrapped one hand around Teyla’s foot in silent support. “Yeah, you should be strong for your people.” He patted Teyla’s shoulder awkwardly as she wept against him. “But you don’t have to be for us.”

Rodney smiled wanly at John as he flopped ungracefully down to the cushions on Teyla’s other side, clumsily patting her shuddering back as -- for once -- he managed to say exactly the right thing. “You’ll, uh, be okay.” He patted Teyla again, slightly more frantically as she seemed to weep harder at his words. “You’re not alone. We’re all here for you.”

Ronon’s mouth twitched wryly even as his grip tightened on Teyla’s foot in sympathy for her grief. “I thought we wanted her to feel better?”

Teyla found herself laughing through her tears and pain, and for the first time in too long allowed herself to take selfish comfort without giving anything in return. She finally realised that when her three friends used the word team, what they were really saying was _family_.

Rodney patted Teyla again, whispering consolingly, “And I promise, first thing tomorrow, I’ll burn that hideous dress and requisition you something more appropriate from Gucci.” He caught John’s look of horrified outrage and rolled his eyes. “Oh, what? Like you weren’t thinking it? That dress was _monstrous_!”

~*~*~*

The End.


End file.
